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Saturday, February 6, 2016

Innovation is Personal

It took me
a long time to come up with that title! I was thinking for a few days about the
role and importance of innovation in my own life, but at the same time I
encountered several groups of educators in different settings.

Some had
problems that needed a solution, some were interested in a new app for creating
exciting learning opportunities in their classrooms. Others were having trouble
with a new reporting system. Still others were inspiring me with their learning,
that had gone beyond my own and was challenging for me to think about.

This got me
thinking back to our school’s TLLP, many years ago, making bonds between
technology and literacy for the first time at the school, and personally, for
several participants. The request was would I please be “nice and patient, and
not go too fast.”

Also at
this time, like may others I am sure, I have been working on our board’s CODE
project. When we look system-wide at a CI-style question, huge disparities
appear among participants. I think it is important to meet each person at their
own “optimal” place of learning and innovation. And of course this is what we
hope to do for each of our students as well.

I think it
is useful to recognize and reward innovation at each step of the way. One
person is not necessarily more innovative than another. Innovation involves
more than technology, of course. I think that as long as growth is involved,
and we are open to new ideas, innovation in some form will occur.

1 comment:

I like the idea that "Innovation is Personal", but I like to think it "becomes" personal after you achieve a buy in from colleagues. I'd love to know the magic formula to get teachers to innovate and see the huge rewards they can get from doing this. Once they start they can personalize to their hearts content and make the experiences their students get hugely rewarding and meaningful.